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Editorial
Dear Readers,
This has been an amazing couple of weeks. As you have probably all seen, we have announced the launch of the Written Declaration nr. 32 in the European Parliament on the 22nd October. So far we have received 66 signatures from MEPs, who support our initiative to have 2014 as the European Year of Reconciling Work and Family Life.
We are of course indebted to MEPs Marian Harkin, Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, Roberta Angelilli and Jutta Steinruck, the four MEPs co-signing our Written Declaration. We need to have the signature of at least 378 MEPs until the 22nd January. Therefore, the main message of this newsletter, as it will be in all of our communication from now until January is: Please help us collect these signatures. The best way to do it, is to go to our blog► http://eyf2014.wordpress.com/, and you will find all the necessary information you need, or to contact our colleague Zoltán Vadkerti, who coordinates this campaign.
In other news we have launched the Nutri-Medias tool in Paris on the 26th October, we have sent out the Save the Date for our Irish Presidency conference on "Vulnerable Families – What can Europe do”, as well we had a successful seminar in October during the Open Days of the Committee of the Regions. All in all it has been a very busy, but also very exciting month, and looks like it will be like this until at least mid-February.
I finish this editorial with my usual request, asking you to get and stay in touch. We are doing this work for you, and we would like to do it with you. There are a number of ways to do so, over our Twitter account, our Facebook page, our Blog, and now even a thematic group on LinkedIn.
We hope you enjoy the newsletter,
The COFACE team |
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COFACE - Written Declaration Nr. 32: the race for signatures has started!The Written Declaration asking for the designation of 2014 to be the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life was presented on 22 October in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The Written Declaration 0032/2012 states that "better support for reconciliation measures will enable women and men in all kinds of family models to exercise greater choice in balancing work and family life on the basis of their individual needs and preferences, and will also contribute to achieving the major policy objectives of the EU”.
COFACE, together with the European Alliance for the EY2014, is trying to bring attention to the fact that creating and promoting policies that enable the reconciliation of work and family life would be a win-win situation – both for individual EU citizens, as well as for the European Union as a whole.
Read COFACE’s press release: Written Declaration Nr. 32: the race for signatures has started!
More information about this campaign: http://eyf2014.wordpress.com/
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EU - European Commission unveils 2013 Work PlanThe return of the European Union to sustainable growth is the objective of the new European Commission Work Programme for 2013 published on 23 October. The Commission Work Programme summarises the objectives for the Union in seven key areas:
1. A genuine Economic and Monetary Union
2. Boosting competitiveness through the Single Market and industrial policy
3. Connect to compete: building tomorrow's networks today
4. Growth for jobs: inclusion and excellence
5. Using Europe's resources to compete better
6. Building a safe and secure Europe
7. Pulling our weight: Europe as a global actor
Read more in a press release issued on the occasion.
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EU - Is a better internet for children possible?On the 18th and 19th of October, the EU Commission and INSAFE co-organised the 2012 Safer Internet Forum with the aim of discussing the creation of a better internet for children and young people. Many interesting points were raised and among these, many very relevant to the interest of families.
First off, the point was raised that parental control tools should be used to foster a dialogue between children and parents about their online activities. This was re-enforced by the idea to replace the parental "control" tools to parental "guidance" or "support" tools since these concepts translate into a more constructive use of these tools, more so than blind parental authority.
The most important point to underline is that parents need to know their children and what they can, cannot do, if they are able to act responsibly with full knowledge of the consequences of their actions online. This can only happen if parents spend time with their children to discuss their online activities... Read more
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EU - Policies and Practices that work! A new feature on the European Alliance for Families websiteA new feature has been recently launched by the European Commission Demography unit, with the help of the RAND Corporation, who have their excellent Promising Practices network, to collect and showcase evidence-based family practices that have shown to be effective in the European Union.
The new feature is comprised of two parts: one is the Evidence-Based Family Practices section, which features practices that have demonstrated their effectiveness through rigorous research, and the other is a parallel Family Practice User Registry, which gathers family practices that are being developed or implemented throughout the European Union... Read more
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COFACE - Nutri-Medias unveiledCOFACE and UNAF co-hosted a day conference in Paris on 26 October, to unveil and launch the Nutri-Medias tool, aimed at media literacy and dietary education. This tool was developed for family associations, schools, parents’ associations, or anybody who is in contact with children in an educational role (parents, teachers).
Nutri-Medias is a very practical, very hands-on tool, which can be used by a facilitator during an awareness-raising or training session. It includes a PowerPoint presentation of 40 animated slides and a user guide that makes it very easy to use by a facilitator during the session... Read more
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COFACE’s office-warming partyCOFACE’s last Administrative Council on Monday, 8 October 2012 was followed by an office-warming party held in our newly-refurbished offices at 17 rue de Londres, Brussels. COFACE’s Administrators along with many colleagues from other European networks joined us for the penguin-themed festivities, which also gave the perfect opportunity to officially unveil to our member organizations and European friends our campaign for the European Year 2014 we want to get on Reconciling Work and Family life.
A penguin-look photo booth was set up to let each guest do a fun sign-up as official campaign supporters... Read more
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EU - A new EU Fund to help cover the basic needs for the most deprivedThe European Commission has proposed on the 24 October 2012, to set up a Fund for the Most Deprived. The Commission foresaw a budget of €2.5 billion for the Fund during the period 2014-2020. The fund will finance the provision of food to the most deprived people and clothing and other essential goods to homeless people and materially-deprived children.
COFACE believes that this fund could directly support many families in alleviating extreme poverty. However, this fund alone cannot be sufficient and therefore the EU and Member States must as well concentrate on actions and policies aiming to prevent many more families from falling into poverty... Read more
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EU - What young people think about sexual and reproductive health?On the 17th of October, the SAFE II project (Sexual Awareness for Europe) presented results of research on increasing the knowledge base on young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights in Europe.
The research was conducted in five EU countries on specific topics like early first sexual intercourse, peer communication and healthy sexual behaviour, young people's information needs and sources on sexuality and factors that influence teen and youth pregnancy... Read more
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SAVE THE DATE!4-5 February, Dublin. High Level Conference on Vulnerable families - What can Europe do?
The conference aims to debate and discuss questions regarding vulnerable families, and enrich as well as contribute to the successful implementation of the Irish Presidency’s Work Programme and emerging social priorities such as tackling unemployment and addressing its social consequences, child poverty or the implementation of effective policies to combat poverty and support vulnerable groups.
More information about this event CLICK HERE
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COFACE - Workshop on Family friendly regionsCOFACE organized a Workshop on Family friendly regions on October the 9th, in the framework of the Open Days of the Committee of the Regions. The afternoon was divided in two round tables: The first one on sharing of best practices by regions and cities and the second one on sharing of best practice by civil society.
One of the conclusions of the day was that being Family Friendly is a choice of individuals, who may be the mayors of cities, managers in a company, or fathers, mothers themselves, who understand, that unless there are proper reconciliation measures and policies (like tele-work, flexi-time, part-time possibilities, available childcare help, or help for the family carer), the employees will always feel unsecure, and less motivated on their jobs... Read more
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EU - Europe Postpones Vote on Gender Quota PlanA proposal to require company boards to be made up of at least 40 per cent women was set aside on 23rd October by the European Commission because of concerns about its legality and tough opposition from across the European Union. Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for justice and the author of the legislation, said the postponement would give commissioners time to consider a compromise.
We at COFACE are of course eagerly following this debate. We advocate for gender equality, and it is absurd, that more young women graduate from tertiary education than young men, yet when it comes to the top jobs, women somehow disappear... Read more
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EU - Child poverty: parents’ employment is not enough!Child and family poverty is still a major concern in Europe. A European Commission Recommendation on Child Poverty was expected for 2012 and it is now due for the beginning of 2013. COFACE is looking forward to the publication of this Recommendation, which will, in COFACE’s view, be a step forward in the process of combating family and child poverty in the EU.
As an active stakeholder, COFACE has been invited to intervene in the conference Investing in Children organised by the Cyprus Presidency in Nicosia on 18-19 October 2012. COFACE was asked to present its view on how policies supporting families can help preventing poverty... Read more
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MEMBERS - Italian family carers face a big challengeThe recent "Stability Law” proposed by the Italian Government included the proposal to reduce from full pay to 50% pay the days of leave taken to care for a disabled or dependent family member. Italian civil society and family carers associations, including "Co.Fa.As. Clelia”, COFACE Disability member immediately mobilised to call for withdrawal of the proposal and avoid this measure, which affects many families who already struggle to care for their family members.
COFACE and COFACE Disability recall that the majority of carers are women and believe that the introduction of such measures will directly affect family income and women’s employment and, therefore, increase the exposure for these families to poverty and social exclusion.
The proposal has been later withdrawn and COFACE welcomes this decision of the Italian Government to safeguard, also and especially in times of austerity, the interest of a very big number of families in Italy.
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